In your zone, they sure WOULD die back in the winter. I wouldn't worry... I think the only way to kill mint is to not water it, like in MY zone.

honestly, my dogs ate/crushed/dug up all of my curly mint last year... so we have not ONE bit left... really a bummer.

I was trying to make it into a ground cover in an area under some trees that was hard to grow anything... and it smelled wonderful when it crept into the lawn & got mowed. Oh well... atleast the dogs had good breath last year LOL.
-Bonnie

I can't get Corsican Mint to grow.....

Don't feel bad - I appear to be a mint killer, too. I'm in Chehalis and noticed today that although most of my mint is coming back, the apple mint bit the dust. Not sure if the "wooly" leaves make it more tender, but it is the only one of my mint plants that I took extra effort to protect over the winter and now it's gone to the great iced tea glass in the sky.
Lu

You folks just need to post a request in the Plant Exchange forum and title it "Mint Wanted", there are plenty of people who will send you plenty of mint for under $5.00 to cover the cost of postage.

I'm in Long island,NY, supposedly zone 7. But two years ago I put in pineapple mint and it disappeared, last year I did apple mint and orange mint , and it looks like I've lost them as well. the only mint I can count on is plain old Spearmint. I have a patch of that, luckily confined by sidewalk, and it has returned year after year. I can see it now.

I don't think my varigated lemon mint is comming back this spring. At least that's what I think it was. Didn't help it to be crowded by my pepers & a self-sown tree. I don't mind that too much, it was a clearance buy. But I miss my lavender. Sigh, but that's for another post.

I discovered some ways to keep Corsican mint alive. I originally planted it in trough shaped place so I could flood it good and intermingled it with stones to provide some nice damp areas, and it finally survived. Then I was surprised to find it self-seeding into my path which has weed barrier with lava rock on top. It really seems to like the damp soil under rocks. I transplanted some of that last fall and found it still alive this spring. I will have to put some rocks there and try to keep it watered this summer.

I have a wild mint that grows in our ditch and also in one bed. Try as I might I can't get it out from between my daylilies.

We're in full hot 38 degree celcius summer here, and in the past month, my potted mints, one apple mint and one spear mint, have failed on me in their first week of being in my possession. The spearmint shrivled up in 2 days, and the apple mint, which I got from home depot not more than 5 days ago, and even had them pot for me so I wouldnt mess it up, and already it has been overtaken with brown spots, the limps are no longer plump and fuzzy, but limp and floppy, and I'm sure I haven't overwatered it, and I have given it full sun.

I have no idea what to do. I love mint, but this love is unrequited. It's giving me a bad rep.

I have had a problem with bugs destroying my mint for two years running, while leaving everything else intact, including chocolate mint. I am wondering if there is a strain of mint that just tastes like mint (I had spearmint) while being more bug-resistant?

I dunno...spearmint is practically indestructible. I remember there was a post on here made by someone who just bought a house where the previous owner had grown spearmint. This person wanted to know how to get rid of it. The responses were on the order of "it's a lost cause - go buy yourself a new house", "napalm!", and "learn to love tabouli".

I just transplanted a spearmint, and I too naively believed it was a 'goner'. Ha!

I've become convinced that you have to work really really hard to kill this plant. I think it's still 'there', plotting it's next move. Watch...and let us know. :-)

About 10-12 years ago I, too, thought my suspiciously well-contained patch of peppermint had gone to the big garden in the sky. The next spring I realised he'd actually been busy travelling: under the patio and into the garden proper.

We had a freakishly-warm, extended spell of nice weather that year and as a result I found myself mowing the yard in mid-March. As I was mowing around the raised beds I smelled mint, and when I took a better look discovered a brand new patch of it measuring about 6' x 3'.

In a panic, I began ripping up the runners and this is how I ascertained the route he'd taken to set up his new digs. I immediately understood that resistance was futile, since there was no way in hell I was gonna be doin' any diggin' under that 12' x 8' concrete patio.

From then on I mainly just kept an eagle eye on it and whenever mint would pop up in a path or a bed I'd yank it out. Oh, and the original patch that I thought was dead? Well, it wasn't.

A couple of years ago my son planted some lemon mint in one of my shrub beds where I used to have some roses. He nor I were aware that it spreads like wild fire. Last year it came back nicely however, this year it is all over the place and now invading my other shrub beds as well as the yard. Does anyone know how to stop it?

jasmith, unfortunately at this point you are probably in maintenance mode - you will just have to keep pulling it up. You have to find the runners and pull them up too. Some of them grow very deep. You will more than likely never find them all, which is why I said "maintenance" mode. Mint is a tenacious weed when it is growing where you don't want it. My mother used to mow her spearmint plant that grew by her compost pile and it survived this treatment for years before it finally bit the dust. Even roundup isn't totally effective and obviously is not an option for you anyway since other plants are involved.

Well the only help I know for bugs is a goose, but he just might eat everything else also. They don't like mint but love bugs.